Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Zelda, which is unfortunate, really.
I guess you could say I had never seen a person like this before. And maybe I was sort of weirded out, I mean, what guy in their right mind would have a long blonde braid? It's like he's screaming 'I'm totally effeminate enough to make girls coo like pigeons and guys not even on Xbox live call me gay!' We're not in an anime, so chop off that braid.
I would have said something snarky, like telling him that Rapunzel wanted her hair back. But I was cut off when the boy pulled out a sword that had been sheathed at his side (get it, 'cut' off? As in, cut like what a sword does- never mind) and slashed it above my head once in a horizontal direction. Something warm splattered across my neck and I immediately sprang to my feet rubbing at the back of my neck.
"What the hell was that for?" I shouted at the blonde when I heard a thud behind me. I pivoted on my right heel before my eyes fell on this rotting corpse.
I looked at my hand, where a dark red liquid was smeared from when I rubbed my hand on my neck.
The head, the maker of the thud I heard, lay half a meter away, dry and rotten-looking flesh hanging like strings from where it had been once connected to the neck.
I took a staggering step backwards, not believing I was looking at what I had joked around about a week ago when Vaati had suddenly fell into a The Walking Dead obsession for a full year.
I was looking at a zombie.
"You blithering imbecile! Are you making attempts on suicide? Mayhap you are planning on taking me with you to meet with the Grim Reaper himself!" I turned on my heel, ready to tell the blonde's ass off even though I saw that we were surrounded.
"Or worse," the blonde began, clearly not wanting to give me a chance to speak, "You are bent on getting both of us to become one of their lot! I will absolutely NEVER allow that to happen!"
That's when the blonde ran forward sword held at the hilt with both hands, blade tilted at a 45. He performed an uppercut that decapitated one zombie and grazed another. Taking advantage of the weakened zombie, he spun on his heel performing a full 360 and removing the heads of three more of the foul creatures.
It wasn't until now that I noticed this rather... large tree that seemed hollow enough to live inside. And was that a face on it...? The boy ran forward towards the tree and hopped up on one of the roots that was extending from the ground, using other roots and branches as stepping stones, before jumping off a larger branch and swinging his sword in three neat slashes. This caused the
The blonde decided that that must have been enough for he grabbed my wrist and stood on his toes to hiss in my ear.
"Come on! We need to get away from them! I cannot possibly handle this many of the living dead on my own, and you certainly are not much help," the blonde growled. I found myself dragged by this character to a cluster of trees. I threw a glance behind me and saw the zombies were still following us, albeit slowly.
"How are we gonna throw them off?" I asked. The boy looked at me before yanking both of us behind a rather fat tree.
"We will climb."
I grinned. Now this was something I was good at. I wrapped my arms around its trunk and positioned my feet on the small grooves I saw. I pushed my feet downward and climbed up, moving my hands in sync. I heard small pieces of bark trickle downwards and glanced below me. The blonde was making his way upwards as well, and let me tell you, the kid looked like a cat moving up a tree hunting its prey, I shit you not.
I reached a thick branch that appeared to support my weight and crawled up onto it. The blonde did the same, finding a branch above mine of the same thickness.
I looked out to the area where we first encountered the zombies. They were staggering around in different directions, scattering now that their prey was lost. I let out a sigh of relief, thankful that the undead could not see what with the rotting eyeballs and everything.
"What do you call yourself?" I looked up at the blonde, who asked me the question.
"Uh, my name is Link," I said.
"So you are able to speak this language, aren't you?" the blonde asked.
"Um, yeah... is there any reason I shouldn't? Last I checked, we were still on the flipping planet of Earth."
"Flipping planet? What is that? A species of trees that likes to rotate? Or perhaps it is your mind, flip-flopping due to the lack of knowledge engraved in that head of yours?" The boy smirked at the insult directed at me.
"It's slang," I told him, hoping to clarify. Was this guy a hermit or something?
"What is 'slang'?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.
I facepalmed at that. Okay, think fancy, big, archaic words...
"It's a euphemism for profanity leading the term we use for 'world'. Flipping being the euphemism, planet being our world,"
The blond shook his head and sighed. "Clearly there is no point in speaking to you. You and your strange dialect or whatever it is you are speaking."
"Uh, aren't you the strange one?" I asked, crossing my arms and glaring at him.
The boy rolled his eyes. "No, really, it would be you. Anyways, my name is Sheik. I cannot say I am exactly pleased to meet you since you nearly cost me my life, but at least you did not get us captured by the ReDead."
"ReDead? Is that what you call the zombies?" I asked, interested in what this Sheik boy had to say.
"What is a zombie? If you are referring to the rotting persons who attacked us, then yes, we call them the ReDead. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that that is their name, and that anyone who has not spent their entire lives trapped inside of their home knows of them!" Sheik looked at me incredulously. (Wait, was I the one just referred to as a hermit?) "How did you get into Hyrule without encountering them or even hearing of them?"
I nearly fell out of the tree. Hyrule? Where have I heard that before..?
"Oi... Link? What's wrong?" Sheik asked. I looked up at him.
"N-nothing."
The blonde looked at me as if he knew I was lying but not going to push me.
"Come along, let me take you to the castle. Zelda will want to know more about where you came from." Sheik said. He looked around, confirming that there were no more ReDead, before jumping off the tree and landing like a cat (what is up with this cat-like-ness?) on the ground, one hand planted to steady himself, the other outstretched for balance.
I scrambled off the tree (much less gracefully than Sheik) and followed the blonde. We wove our way through the trees before coming across a small bridge. We followed it until we emerged in a large field.
"This is Hyrule Field, now known to be one of the most dangerous places to be in. The number of beasts inhabiting this field is not known to us yet. They keep on growing as more silly townsfolk wander into this area and are infected." Sheik drew his sword again and took a cautious step forward.
"I don't see any monsters," I said to him, rolling my eyes when he moved into a defensive stance as if something was suddenly going to crawl out of the ground to attack him.
Which actually happened mere seconds later, right before my damn eyes.
It was a giant skeletal looking... thing. A moving skeleton, it seemed. And it crawled out of the ground.
Crap, that was about as freaky as seeing Vaati in a Californian surfer getup, complete with the accent and the tan.
I moved back as I watched Sheik thrust his sword forward several times and hacked it side to side until the thing fell apart and faded into a green flame.
Sheik turned around. "That was only the first of many."
I understood what he meant by that mere seconds later when we ran through the field, Sheik fending off the skeletons one by one as we slowly made our way across Hyrule Field.
Eventually I found myself in a bustling square after crossing a drawbridge.
"Welcome to Castle Town."
